Olmert government made "great and grave faults" in Lebanon war

( dpa ) - Presenting its long-awaited final conclusions, an Israeli commission of inquiry into Israel's 2006 war with Lebanon's Hezbollah said Wednesday it found "great and grave faults" in the decision-making of both the government and military.

The ground offensive ordered by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the final three days of the war, in which some 33 Israeli soldiers were killed, did "not achieve any military goals," retired judge Eliyahu Winograd, who heads the commission, told a news conference in Jerusalem.

He said the report did not include "personal conclusions" calling on Olmert, other cabinet members or military chiefs to resign, because "in our point of view the duty of rectifying" the mistakes made rests on those who made them.

But this did not mean that personal "responsibility did not exist."

Israel made "no efficient use of its military prowess," and the war ended without Israel "winning clearly militarily." This, he said, was a "great and severe miss."